Tourism in Thailand is growing strongly, with figures showing arrivals to the destination increased 7.5% in 2018.
The travel and tourism sector is also is also growing in the country, by 6% last year, but a new report says investment in infrastructure is needed for Thailand to keep on top of the growth of tourism.
The Thailand Future of Tourism report put together by Amadeus, the country’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency and the Pacific Asia Travel Association, highlights four areas that can help gear Thailand up for future growth.
Last year, Airports of Thailand unveiled investment of almost $8 billion to triple capacity at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok with the operator saying that it was build for 45 million passengers but arrival have hit 65 million.
The Thailand Towards 2030 report says airports should look at adopting smart technology including more self-service kiosks and automated bag drops.
It adds that the adoption of biometric technologies to help move passengers through the airport would also help.
Amadeus recently piloted technology with Ljubljana Airport enabling passengers to take a selfie alongside passport and boarding card details and have it matched with a photo at boarding to speed up the process.
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A second area for development in the study is improving links to and from the airport using different modes of transport. The report suggests integrating airport links with public transport as well as the development of high-speed rail will help.
The report also highlights public-private partnerships to further help improve inner-city transport networks.
Finally, the use of data to avoid overtourism through real-time analysis and predictive modelling, to help manage volumes, is highlighted as key.
The report points to the Phuket Data Platform where Internet of Things data is combined with open data to predict patterns of movement. The initiative brings data from free hotspots and vehicle licence plates using CCTV cameras to help understand visitor demographics.
These sorts of "Smart Tourism" initiatives make for a more seamless experience for travelers and help destinations understand how visitors are moving about, according to the report.
* The Thailand Towards 2020 study can be downloaded here.